Let’s talk Irving Fine.
I have never heard of people, even in formal education settings, talk much about Irving Fine. However, I have come to find him very interesting, and an important part to 20th century classical music as a composer in tonal music and a-tonal music, particularly serialism (a compositional technique based on ordering series of the twelve notes of the equal-tempered scale).
Now let’s talk about Irving Fine.
A little background history on him as a human: He was born in 1914 in Boston, Massachusett’s (myself being from Worcester, Mass. this is pretty cool!). He studied at Harvard for his Bachelors and Masters degree both in composition where he studied alongside Nadia Boulanger, and went on to continue studying with Boulanger in Paris in 1939. It seems Irving was very interested in the concept of Glee because he was the Glee Club conductor both at Harvard AND the Naval Training School. I myself am not a fan of glee club, but still that’s cool! Fine was also there for Copland’s first ever performance of Appalachian Spring October 30, 1944 at the Library of Congress (which is interestingly enough where I am getting most of this information on Irving). For a more detailed account see this A Biographical Sketch.
Contribution to Serialism
The String Quartet of 1952.
In 1952 Irving Fine’s the String Quartet of 1952 was made. This was a quartet devoted to 12 tone music, also known as serialism or A-Tonal.
The String Quartet (1952) was probably one of Irving Fine’s most well known works. Inspired by Copland and Stravinsky, Fine’s also wanted to enter into the 12 tone world.
“A few years ago it occurred to Fine that amiability was becoming too steady a diet with him and that some relief was in order. To this end he set himself the task of writing a twelve-tone string quartet (1952) which turned out to be an impressive work, perhaps his best to date.” -Arthur Berger, American Composer and Music Critic
After The String Quartet of 1952 came Fantasia for Spring Trio of 1956:
Then came is last ever work entitled Symphony of 1962
I don’t feel like I need to go into detail in what all of the pieces entail. I think it is important for us to listen to these pieces and get to know Irving that way. As a listener, what are some of your thoughts about Irving Fine’s? Does Symphony of 1962 sound tonal to you? Do we hear some of Nadia Boulanger in his writings? Maybe Copland too? What are your thoughts to his String Quartet?
Let me know in the comments below!
